Lubbock veterans remember tours in Iraq War

Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Vanessa Darden and her husband, Sgt. Eric Darden, are at a Marine Ball in 2012. Both completed tours in Iraq.

Staff Sgt. Shaun Behlke of Lubbock was already serving in the Marine Corps when President George W. Bush announced late on March 19, 2003, that American and coalition forces were in the early stages of military operations in Iraq.

He was sent to Iraq for a tour that lasted from 2003 until 2004, came back for a short stand-down, then went back from 2005 to 2007.

A convoy driver, he became intimately acquainted with improvised explosive devices.

Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Vanessa Darden, now of Lubbock, began serving in the Navy in 2004, then was sent to Iraq for an extended tour in 2006 and 2007. She learned not only to administer medical care for soldiers and citizens, but to search Iraqi women who were headed to Baghdad with American dollars and components of IEDs in their underclothing.

Sgt. Steven Padilla, who arrived in Iraq in 2008, had enlisted in the Marine Corps at Lubbock. He began providing logistical support to an air wing, but also was deploying persuasive weapons in the form of humanitarian aid to Iraqi citizens.

Behlke, who was apprehensive about the possibility of having his truck blown apart by an IED early in the war, said experience and the presence of veterans of Desert Storm had made the lethal roads somewhat easier to face.

“My job was to carry goods — beans, bullets, Band-Aids — from point A to point B, to Marines everywhere around Iraq,” he said.

“Unfortunately, Baghdad was trying to get us, because they knew if they could stop the convoys, we couldn’t resupply our Marines.

“We saw the fire fights ... and the IEDs. You name it. Lost some friends. Lost some close friends.”

He remembers, “I was driving to an unclassified location, and an IED went off and hit my truck. Knocked the truck out of commission right then and there.”

He was severely injured.

“I was pretty messed up for a while, but I’ve recovered.”

He said, “It ain’t no fun — it’s just a big old kick to the butt right there while you’re in the vehicle.

“You grow up quick over there.”

Darden, who has a family history of service in the Marine Corps, had thought of going that route, too, but then changed to a medical path in the Navy.

“I deployed with the First Marine Expeditionary Force, and was attached — I was in the Lioness Program, the women’s engagement team.”

She added, “We actually went out with the infantry units and spent our entire deployment with them. Our job was to assist the grunts in anything they needed, and search the female Iraqis at check points — and on the side of the road if we came across a village where something was suspicious.”

She said some of the women would hide money that was being transported to Baghdad or to Syria.

“We would find money within their undergarments. And we would find weapons — it was only pieces of weapons, mostly pieces of IEDs that they were transferring to different locations.”

She said of the female enemies, “They were packed down, and would have all their kids with them, and go through a search point.

“It was always amazing to see five little kids and the mother carrying over $2,000 in American dollars and pieces of an IED.”

Padilla said the biggest thing about any military branch is the camaraderie.

“We were part of the reserves component — we were a bunch of reserves stationed in the middle of nowhere. So the camaraderie was good.”

He added, “At the same time, we were part of the transition team. We also did humanitarian missions. We would go to local villages and provide soccer balls, water and food for the locals.

“I guess the welcome and the support we had from the locals — they wanted us there — so, the biggest reward of all was just the support from the locals.”

Darden saw a degree of appreciation earlier in the war.

“There were women who came through and their kids were in dire need of antibiotics, and they were thankful that we were there to provide that for them.

“As far as whether they changed their view about us, I can’t say, but I know that at that moment in time, they were thankful for what we were able to give them.”

Speaking of the violence of the war, Behlke said he kept this mentality during the combat:

“I’ve got a wife and kids, and I would rather fight the bad guys in their backyard than for them to come over to my backyard.

“I had rather go fight the bad guys than for them to come and mess with my family.”